Public Intelligence Blog – Page 2142 – The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.

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Analyzing Fake Content on Twitter During Boston Marathon Bombings

As iRevolution readers already know, the application of Information Forensics to social media is one of my primary areas of interest. So I’m always on the lookout for new and related studies, such as this one (PDF), which was just published by colleagues of mine in India. The study by Aditi Gupta et al. analyzes fake content shared on Twitter during the Boston Marathon Bombings earlier this year.

Gupta et al. collected close to 8 million unique tweets posted by 3.7 million unique users between April 15-19th, 2013. The table below provides more details. The authors found that rumors and fake content comprised 29% of the content that went viral on Twitter, while 51% of the content constituted generic opinions and comments. The remaining 20% relayed true information. Interestingly, approximately 75% of fake tweets were propagated via mobile phone devices compared to true tweets which comprised 64% of tweets posted via mobiles.

The authors also found that many users with high social reputation and verified accounts were responsible for spreading the bulk of the fake content posted to Twitter. Indeed, the study shows that fake content did not travel rapidly during the first hour after the bombing. Rumors and fake information only goes viral after Twitter users with large numbers of followers start propagating the fake content. To this end, “determining whether some information is true or fake, based on only factors based on high number of followers and veriﬁed accounts is not possible in the initial hours.”

Continue reading “Patrick Meier: Analyzing Fake Content on Twitter During Boston Marathon Bombings”

2013/10/202014/03/30

Review (Guest): Savage Kingdom – The True Story of Jamestown, 1607, and the Settlement of America

5 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Atrocities & Genocide

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Benjamin Woolley

Some Long-term American Myths finally Meet Reality, October 20, 2013

By Herbert L Calhoun “paulocal”

EXTRACT

An important footnote on Slavery

Chapter Twenty-One, entitled the Imbangala, tells the story of how slavery got into the English colonial picture. It is such an interesting and unexpected story that I am including a rough summary of it here as well.

The transatlantic slave trade began under a license issued at Seville, in 1598 while Portugal was a province of Spain. At the time, Portugal had had much success in enlisting very unreliable local black armies to help it defeat local towns in Angola raided for large caches of slaves taken as spoils of war. That is, until it was routed by a chief of the Ndogolo people. Rather than continuing to rely on the unreliable “black armies,” Portugal hired the much more feared and ruthless, if not entirely barbaric, group of itinerant marauders called the “Imbangala,” best known for settling within a country, sucking it dry and then moving on.

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2013/10/202013/10/20

Review (DVD): Powerbody: Advanced Russian Kettlebell Workout with Phil Ross

Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Reviews (DVD Only)

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Phil Ross

5.0 out of 5 stars Single Best Value — Better than any book, October 20, 2013

After reading through Kettlebells For Dummies I have to conclude that this DVD by itself is vastly more useful than any book. This is a complete package offering 45 minutes of perfectly displayed instruction for a routine that can be completely in 30 minutes.

Introduction. Basics include flat shoe or barefoot. Chalk up and hydrate but you must complete the exercise in the allotted amount of time to achieve the optimal benefit. Do not settle for anything less than a cast iron single piece kettlebell. This stuff is DANGEROUS if you are not warmed up, trained up, and ready to do the relatively coordinated actions such as swinging a kettlebell up, letting go the handle, and catching it the palm of you hand. What impresses me about this advanced version is that it clearly is a full-body work out where bending of the knees, a straight back, flexible hips, and balance are essential.

Tutorial. In this section a series of exercises are demonstrated with ample words, ending with the towel halos using a single sixteen pound RK and swinging the RK around in a manner that is clearly a full body work-out. And dangerous. If you are not good at this you could let go and hurt someone — or be hurt by others not yet ready for this exercise.

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2013/10/202013/10/20

Review: Kettlebells for Dummies

4 Star, Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Reviews (DVD Only)

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Sarah Lurie

4.0 out of 5 stars Overkill — 50 pages fluffed to 342, October 20, 2013

If you ever wanted to get to know a Russian Kettlebell intimately, as well as its family going back 1000 years and every possible nuanced aspect of it, this is the book for you. For me it is total overkill and would more usefully be replaced by a 50 page illustrated guide and a single wall chart — or two, one for warm-up with jumprope and stick, the other a series of exercises. I watched Powerbody: Advanced Russian Kettlebell Workout with Phil Ross before going through this book,and now I am leaning toward reversing my conclusion that the Ross DVD was too advanced and one should start with this book. Given a choice between the two, I would dump this book and use the DVD as a complete package.

Bottom line: too much of everything. This is a doctoral thesis on pulling carrots out of the ground. This is a formula book on steroids. It certainly earns four stars — some might give it five (I mistrust most of the reviews, them seem to be very short and empty reviews from people doing the author a favor) — and the substance is worthy, but the overall “door stop” nature of the book is very off-putting. I could have distilled this book into 50 pages with two wall charts, and been happier with that at the same price.

Here are a few bottom lines from this book:

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2013/10/202013/10/20

Event: 5 NOV 2013 Million Mask March World Event

#Events

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Million Mask March is a world event held every year on November 5th. Increasing in number, this year there are over 350 worldwide locations including Washington, DC, London, Sydney and many, many more. In the spirit of Anonymous, Occupy and WikiLeaks, it is a call to unite whistleblowers, hacktivists, marchers and occupiers to defend humanity from political corruption.

International Business Times calls it the largest protest in the history of mankind.

Million Mask March in the News

VOICE OF RUSSIA | One Million Masks , Expect Us – Anonymous | 17 OCT 2013

THE REBEL CORP.| To be in Washington, DC NOV 5 Near Anonomobile with Masks

RT | Anonymous Plans Million Mask March on Washington | 8 OCT 2013

CBS | Million Mask March In The Works for National Mall on Guy Fawkes Day | 18 AUG 2013

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES | Largest Peaceful March in the History of Mankind | 17 SEP 2013

DENVER iJOURNAL | Anonymous Planning Masked March in Denver on Election Day| 10 JUL 2013

FORBES | WikiLeaks International Political Party | 30 JUN 2013

** Interesting Internal US Gov Correspondence re: Occupy Washington, DC **
NPS-NCR-B01-00004

Multiple Videos

2013/10/202013/10/20

2013 ON REVOLUTION — HelpngTransform the US Army Consistent with CSA Guidance

Articles & Chapters

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* The Chinese character for revolution, “fire in the lake,” was made well-known to literate Americans by Frances Fitzgerald, Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam (Little, Brown and Company, 2009), originally published in the early 1970's. The book remains startlingly relevant to a learning-disabled US military repeating the same mistakes, at the behest of politicians repeating the same mistakes, in over 25 substantive “interventions” now active around the world.

This is a work in progress that will be submitted to SSI as a no-cost proposed monograph, with complete DoD pre-publication review at the theater and national levels. It has not yet been proferred nor accepted. The contents will be those of the individual contributing authors, and not representative of DoD as an institution.

Table of Contents

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2013/10/192013/10/19

Daring to Hope: Afghanistan 21 Fellows Take Aim at Myriad Issues Facing Their Country

08 Wild Cards

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Daring to Hope: Afghanistan 21 Fellows Take Aim at Myriad Issues Facing Their Country

Tom Nagorski

The Asia Society, October 17th, 2013

There may be no nation on earth where 2014 looms with as much excitement and trepidation as it does in Afghanistan. This country, torn by strife and poverty for so long, will see two seminal changes in the coming year: The end of the long presidency of Hamid Karzai; and the end of the long presence of international combat forces on its soil. As Afghanistan's foreign minister (and now presidential candidate) Zalmai Rassoul told an Asia Society audience in New York recently, “it will be a critical time and a critical moment for our people.”

It is a “critical moment,” then, for any future leaders of Afghanistan — and a perfect time to welcome the latest group of fellows in Asia Society's landmark program Afghanistan 21. For nearly a decade we have been selecting young leaders from across the Asia Pacific, and from all manner of professional backgrounds, to serve in a broad leadership network known as Asia 21. As the years have passed, and the network has grown into a movement (800-strong now), some fascinating offshoots have sprouted. Afghanistan 21 is one of these — a nascent network of young leaders, in a nation that will need great leadership, no matter what transpires in 2014 and beyond.

This week we announce our choices for the new “Class” for Afghanistan 21. And we think you'll agree — it's a fascinating group. Ten young men and six young women; journalists and business people, diplomats and NGO workers. Oh — and one very celebrated athlete. Together they will gather in Kabul, bringing their rich and diverse backgrounds to the table, and take aim at the myriad issues facing their country.

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